Season 1 Episode 01: Those Lined Up Before the Horizon
"Those Lined Up Before the Horizon" (境界線前の整列者達, Kyōkai-sen Mae no Seiretsusha-tachi) is the first episode of the Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon anime series, released on October 2, 2011. It was directed by Kyouhei Ishiguro, with screenplay by Tatsuhiko Urahata and storyboard by Manabu Ono. In the year 1648 of the Testament Era, an unusual class is in session. The history of the current world, now a much different place than before, is explained through the students of Musashi Ariadust Academy, and a story of two long-lost friends is opened after a certain event ten years into the past. Synopsis Year 1457 of the Testament Era. The land that is once called as the country of Japan is shaken by a column of light that stretches out into the sky, and several pieces of land plummet from the sky onto the surface, causing a destructive cataclysm. One hundred and ninety-one years after that incident, on a gigantic flying ship named Musashi, a lone girl sings a song in front of the ship's Okutama Cemetery. Elsewhere, a young man smiles into the daytime sky. On that same flying city, classes begin on the Musashi Ariadust Academy, and Class 3-Plum, led by its adviser Makiko Oriotorai, starts their PE class. Their activity for this day is to pursue their teacher, who will run across the flying city to Shinagawa on the other side, where she plans to "beat the daylights out of a certain criminal". After that activity will be the day's real training session. One of Makiko's students, the student council treasurer Shirojiro Bertoni, asks whether beating a criminal has anything to do with physical education (and if involves money), and the girl beside him, Heidi Augesvarer, tells him that it is something to do with their teacher always getting into trouble. Makiko clarifies that she is just settling a score with someone who pissed her off. The winged pair Margot Knight and Malga Naruze echo their teacher's statement, only to be frightened when their teacher points her sword at them. Makiko then asks if there are absentees for the day, and Margot reports that "Seijun" and a certain Chancellor are out, and the former is supposed to have a part-time job. Soon, a brown-haired well-endowed girl who introduces herself as "Bel Fiore", speaks behind the winged pair and tells them that they do not need to worry about her "silly brother", who turns out to be the Chancellor of Musashi Ariadust Academy and the Student Council President. Moreover, she won't tell anyone about his whereabouts. With the Student Council President's absence confirmed, Makiko finalizes the attendance list. As she handles the attendance, Makiko laments at the thought of an irresponsible boy who is even called "Impossible" ending up as someone ruling Musashi Ariadust Academy, and one of her students, named Toussaint Neshinbara, points out that it has been the same thing for 160 years. According to him, all of the Divine States are ruled by the people of Musashi; however, Musashi now bows to the will of other nations, especially the Testament Union. One of Toussaint's classmates, Ginji Ohiroshiki, is worried that talking about oppression while being escorted by the oppressors is a bad idea. Toussaint assures him that there's no need to be anxious, since the oppressors are too busy to listen to every single person's mind. Makiko agrees to Toussaint's explanation of their current situation, and as she — and the whole class — prepares for the activity, she tells the rules. The activity involves hitting Makiko in any way possible before she reaches her destination; anyone who succeeds will be awarded five absences for free. One of the fighter-type students, Tenzou Crossunite, asks if actually hitting the target is required... and whether points are given on touching the target in "certain parts of the body", which even a dragon-like robot named Kiyonari Ulquiaga anticipates. Their perverse thoughts are stopped when Makiko threatens to finish them off even before the start of the activity. Soon, Makiko leaps away at her students, triggering a frantic pursuit for their teacher... and their target. Meanwhile, on the peaceful part of the Musashi, the Blue Thunder store opens and as the girl seen singing a while ago prepares to open shop, sounds of explosions can be heard from outside. It turns out that it is the end of the quiet moment for Blue Thunder as Makiko and her students pass by, leaving behind a light shower of spells behind. Shirojiro sends to the angels a Sign Frame that he tosses in the air while Margot fires into it, splitting Margot's spell into several arrows that home in on Makiko. Makiko easily dodges them and travels into the next part of the Musashi, where she encounters Adele Balfette, one of her students. Adele prepares her First Lance and charges into Makiko, striking her using her glaive. However, Makiko was able to shrug off her attacks and delivers a side kick into Adele's heavy glaive, knocking her off-balance, causing her to spin wildly. Meanwhile, fellow student Hassan Furubushi jumps into the battlefield wielding a large bowl of curry and he is easily dispatched along with Adele. Soon, reinforcements arrive and one of the more bizarre students of Makiko, the incubus named Kenji Itou, goes to pick up the knocked out Hassan, while a blob with a gentleman-like voice, Nenji, goes to Adele's aid, only to explode under Kimi Aoi's foot. Kimi apologizes to Nenji, but her classmate Nate Mitotsudaira doesn't see the sincerity in her apology. However, Kimi doesn't seem to mind, and even teases Nate on their way. Kenji's warning about something that "shouldn't be worried about" has caused many of the shops and houses nearby to close down for the meantime, but the owner of Blue Thunder is not that worried about the commotion in town. Atop Musashi, the city-ship's robot captain, dressed in a maid's outfit, watches as smoke billows from one of the spots attacked by Margot and Malga on their pursuit of their teacher. She is joined by President Tadatsugu Sakai and starts a disjointed conversation with him. President Sakai then decides to watch as the events unfold several hundred feet below. While Makiko continues to run towards her destination, Tenzou, assisted by Kiyonari and his other classmate Noriki initiate their team attack. He charges to Makiko and taunts an attack from her, but holds back at the last moment, allowing Kiyonari to dive from above. However, Makiko foresees the incoming attack and unsheathes her blade, striking Kiyonari with the sheath. Noriki, the class's melee specialist, charges to hit Makiko while her blade is down. Makiko then lowers her grip of her sword and leaves it to be struck by Noriki. With the plan of Tenzou, Kiyonari and Noriki failing to land a hit on their teacher, he calls his classmate Tomo Asama, who prepares her bow for a long-ranged attack. With Toussaint's orders, Persona, with classmate Suzu Mukai on his shoulders, runs towards Tomo to give her a stable moving platform for her attack. Then, using Konoha, her artificial left eye that acts as a coordinate-locking system, she uses a Shinto spell that allows her to fire a homing arrow, in exchange for offerings to be prepared later. After Tomo's preparations, she fires the arrow, and it appears to have hit Makiko. Unfortunately, Toussaint notices that Makiko uses locks of her hair to divert the target, and Tomo's sacrifices ended up for nothing. Nate, in a desperate attempt to hit their teacher, soon throws Adele's lance at Makiko, but she also misses after Makiko uses a nearby post to evade the attack. Makiko is close to reaching Shinagawa, and Margot and Malga prepare a more powerful arsenal of spells to slow down Makiko. Unfortunately, they missed the target, and they almost risked hitting their classmates. "Musashi" and President Sakai continue to watch over the pursuit, and "Musashi" thinks that the chances of failure for the class is very high now that Makiko has reached Shinagawa. Soon, President Sakai notices that "Musashi" is not seeing over things from the bridge as captain of the Musashi; "Musashi" tells President Sakai that since they have gone past the perilous part of the journey, there is ample time to kill while they head for Mikawa, their destination. "Musashi" then mentions to President Sakai that Mikawa is currently under turmoil, and that he should be careful. Meanwhile, President Sakai wonders about how the people would live in the world that would revolve around Musashi and the lands of the Far East. Musashi cannot say, especially since the Testament Union says that the world shall end soon. Soon, Makiko reaches her destination, and with the entire class reaching her, a stand-off begins. At exactly 30 minutes after the activity started, the class except for Suzu was down for the count. Despite the failure of the while class to withstand's Makiko's strength, she commends the class for being able to help each other out in spite of failing to fulfill the mission she gave out. As soon as she finishes speaking, however, a large red-skinned creature with four arms and two horns — an archdemon — emerges from behind her. It turns out that it is the criminal who is supposed to have been involved in kicking out Makiko from her house a month ago. Two well-placed hits is all it took for Makiko to knock out the archdemon. Soon, as Makiko discovers that the practical course for that day might be held off, an unexpected student turns out: it is Toori Aoi, holding a mysterious box. As the other inhabitants of Musashi watch his entrance, Makiko takes the time to demand an explanation for his tardiness in class. Toori turns up late because he bought an eroge for himself, and he waited in line for a limited-edition copy. Of course, Makiko is infuriated by his reason for skipping class, but she is even more shocked when he groped Makiko's breasts in front of the class. As the PE teacher is left frozen in shock from Toori's perverse action, Toori announces that he will be going out with someone soon. Kimi suspects that it will be just a delusional date with a fictional character, but Toori assures her sister that his eroge purchase would be the last. Toori then declares to everyone that he will finally go out with Horizon. Everyone goes silent upon his statement, and a disappointed Kimi reminds Toori that Horizon has died ten years ago, on the road called Remorse Way. In spite of this, Toori doesn't reconsider his plan, and even prepares to fight the whole world after that. Toori then turns to his teacher, who is now blinded with rage after being groped, by one of his students no less. Makiko, who is even more infuriated by Toori's cheerful talk, unleashes a powerful leg kick, launching him through the gang's locked outer gate and planting him into another. In a distant future, the world began to rewrite its history. Humans once rose to the heavens like gods. But they could not bring themselves to stop warring, and lost the power they had. Thus, they were forced to return to the earth. But the planet's environment had grown hostile. The Divine States were the only hospitable places left. In order to regain their former prosperity, they wrote a history book called the Testament. They separated the Divine States in the real world from its copy, the Harmonic Divine States. They then proceeded to relive human history. But the Divine States made a mistake while repeating history in the Middle Ages. This resulted in the fall of the Harmonic Divine States, inviting other countries to divide and conquer the Far East Divine States. The kings joined forces with the feudal warlords of the lands. Currently, the Far East's warriors dispatched around the world are reliving the Warring States Period and the Thirty Years' War Era as they battle for world domination. New Characters By order of appearance New Locations *Musashi Ariadust Academy *Blue Thunder Trivia *The girl shown in the first moments of the episode, later seen in the cover of the eroge Toori Aoi purchased, is Nurhaci. 'Cultural References' *There are many versions of the Five Sacred Grains (or the "wugu" in Chinese); one version mentions five particular kinds of grain: house grain, loose grain, horn grain, beard grain, and cart grain. *'Kagura dance' is a kind of traditional Japanese ritual dance. 'Unanswered Questions' *Why is the world going to end at the year 1648? *Who are the characters shown during the narration at the end of the episode? Quotes *"Horizon... That name marks the beginning of a journey for these kids." — Makiko's message for the kids as she travels past Remorse Way *"I'm gonna install it on my PC when I get home and bawl like a baby while being a perv!" — Toori's plans for the day after school, something his teacher is shocked to hear *"Silly brother. That's not the kind of thing you say with an eroge in your hands. If this girl is on the other side of the computer screen, stick your !@#$ in the power socket and die! It would be wonderful!" — Kimi's response to Toori's plans to go out with someone Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 Episodes